Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875)

Barye was the earliest and most famous of the French animalier school, renowned for his studies of wild animals in a way which was both romantic and less inhibited than many of his successors. A major reason for his high technical ability was his study of animals in the Paris Zoo where, as well as studying their behaviour and movement, he would also dissect carcasses to explore their anatomy and musculature.

His two mentors were the sculptor Baron François-Joseph Bosio and the painter Antoine-Jean Gros, famous for his rousing battle scenes, often involving animals.

His successful career began at the Salon in 1831 and his work, in many ways ahead of its time, finally began to be fully appreciated in the late 1830s.